rather than face the changes his clan will inevitably
undergo. Therefore, his obstinate devotion to tradi-
tion leads to his shameful death. Perhaps, then, the
best solution Achebe includes in the novel comes
through the quiet discussions between Mr. Brown
and Akunna—two men who do not act in violence
or hatred in order to guard their respective tradi-
tions, but instead strive to understand.
Lindsay Cobb
ADAMS, HENRY The Education of
Henry Adams (1907)
The Education of Henry Adams, first published pri-
vately in 1907, remains Henry Adams’s best-known
work and one of the greatest autobiographies ever
written. In it, Adams (1838–1918) tells of his own
life in the third person, covering the period of his
early childhood to his later life. The Education,
richly filled with symbolism, contains his systematic
view of history as a force of progress.
The main character of the Education is Adams,
narrated in the third person by the author, born
into the great Adams family (the same family that
produced the U.S. presidents John Adams and John
Quincy Adams) in the early 19th century. As a young
boy, Adams grows up in luxury, and he encounters a
number of famous Americans, beginning with those
in his family, to whom he gives heroic status. He
later attends Harvard and embarks upon a career.
During this time, as he moves out of the comfort
of New England, young Adams finds a number of
new heroes, especially the English. Throughout his
“education,” the young Adams explores such themes
as education, science and technology, and
innocence and experience.
The Education tells the story of one man’s
engagement with his culture and society. Henry’s
experiences allow the author Adams to step back
and evaluate his life in relation to the larger move-
ment of history and the growth of America toward
the turn of the century.
Michael Modarelli
educatiOn in The Education of Henry Adams
Education in Henry Adams’s autobiography is a
quest for a specific doctrine—perhaps a specific
plan of action or worldview—by which he can live
his life. In contrast to other famous autobiographies,
such as the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
or the autobioGraphy oF benJaMin FrankLin,
Adams’s work does not end as a success story. In
fact, the quest for education carries Adams through
to the final chapters. Never culminating in a heroic
apex, the work describes the protagonist’s attempt to
reconcile ideas of past learning with the new tech-
nological and industrial world. Indeed, education
serves to bring the author to the unfolding nature of
learning and knowledge as it plays out in progressive
civilizations.
The Education of Henry Adams begins as Adams
is born in Boston, Massachusetts, in privileged cir-
cumstances as a member of the illustrious Adams
family; his father was the diplomat Charles Francis
Adams I, and his grandfather was the former U.S.
president John Quincy Adams. To distance himself
from the narrative, however, he writes the story in
the third person, calling himself Henry. From the
outset, Adams notes that the “problem” of educa-
tion began at a very early age. He traces his first
rudimentary forays into education from the begin-
ning when, as a child living in Quincy, just south of
Boston, he learned color and taste. From here, he
begins to notice divisions—marked separations in
the world, starting with summer and winter—and
these notions would permeate his more formal edu-
cation. Isolated in his Quincy home, young Henry
knew little of the exterior problems of the world.
When his grandfather puts on his hat and walks
young Henry to school, this marks the boy’s entry
into formal education. Of his formal education he
says little—he disliked the formalities of education
and rote memorization. Of entering a symbolically
American institution, Harvard, he notes only that
his four years there left him with an autobiographi-
cal “blank.”
Adams continues to remind the reader, however,
that his narrative is a story of education. The places
and people who figure in the narrative only have
value insofar as they pertain to Henry’s education.
His early heroes were John Quincy Adams and
George Washington, as well as 18th-century histo-
rians. Soon he widens his horizons, geographically
speaking, by moving out of Massachusetts, and he130 Adams, Henry